Gold reserve

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A gold reserve is the gold held by a central bank or nation intended as a store of value and as a guarantee to redeem promises to pay depositors, note holders (e.g., paper money), or trading peers, or to secure a currency.

Today, gold reserves are almost exclusively, albeit rarely, used in the settlement of international transactions.^{[citation needed]}

At the end of 2004, central banks and investment funds held 19% of all above-ground gold as bank reserve assets.^[1]

It has been estimated that all the gold mined by the end of 2009 totaled 165,000 tonnes.^[2] At a price of US$1900/oz., reached in September 2011, one tonne of gold has a value of approximately US$60.8 million. The total value of all gold ever mined would exceed US$9.2 trillion at that valuation.^{[note 1]}

Contents 1 IMF gold holdings 2 Officially reported gold holdings 3 Privately held gold 4 World gold holdings 5 See also 6 Notes 7 References

IMF gold holdings

As of June 2009, the International Monetary Fund held 3,217 tonnes (103.4 million oz.) of gold,^[3][4] which had been constant for several years. In Fall 2009, the IMF announced that it will sell one eighth of its holdings, a maximum of 12,965,649 fine troy ounces (403.3 t) based on a new income model agreed upon in April 2008, and subsequently announced the sale of 200 tonnes to India,^[5] 10 tonnes to Sri Lanka,^[6] a further 10 Metric tonnes of Gold was also sold to Bangladesh Bank in September 2010 and 2 tonnes to the Bank of Mauritius.^[7] These gold sales were conducted in stages at prevailing market prices.

The IMF maintains an internal book value of its gold that is far below market value. In 2000, this book value was XDR 35, or about US$47 per troy ounce.^[8] An attempt to revalue the gold reserve to today's value has met resistance for different reasons. For example, Canada is against the idea of revaluing the reserve, as it may be a prelude to selling the gold on the open market and therefore depressing gold prices.^[9]

Officially reported gold holdings

The International Monetary Fund regularly maintains statistics of national assets as reported by various countries. These data are used by the World Gold Council to periodically rank and report the gold holding of countries and official organizations.^[10]

The gold listed for each of the countries in the table may not be physically stored in the country listed, as central banks generally have not allowed independent audits of their reserves.

World official gold holding (December 2010)^[10]

Rank	Country/Organization	Gold (tonnes)	Gold's share of national forex reserves (%)[10]
-	Eurozone	10,792.6	60.7%
1	USA	8,133.5	74.7%
2	Germany	3,401.0	71.7%
3	IMF	2,846.7	-
4	Italy	2,451.8	71.4%
5	France	2,435.4	66.1%
6	China	1,054.1	1.7%
7	Switzerland	1,040.1	16.4%
8	Qatar	950.3	7.1%
9	Russia	775.2	6.7%
10	Japan	765.2	3.0%
11	Netherlands	615.5	59.4%
12	India	614.8	8.1%
13	ECB	522.7	27.9%
14	Republic of China (Taiwan)	466.9	4.6%
15	Portugal	421.6	81.1%
16	Venezuela	401.1	52.4%
17	Saudi Arabia	322.9	3.0%
18	Islamic Republic of Iran	320[11]	-
19	United Kingdom	310.3	16.8%
20	Lebanon	300	27.6%
21	Spain	281.6	38.6%
22	Austria	280.0	56.2%
23	Belgium	227.5	36.8%
24	Pakistan	184.4	19.2%
25	Philippines	175.9	14.0%
26	Algeria	173.6	4.5%
27	Libya	143.8	5.6%
28	Singapore	127.4	2.5%
29	Sweden	125.7	11.1%
30	South Africa	124.9	12.2%
31	BIS	120.0	-
32	Turkey	116.1	6.0%
33	Greece	111.7	78.7%
34	Romania	103.7	9.1%
35	Poland	102.9	4.5%
36	Mexico	100.1[12]	3.8%[12]
37	Thailand	99.5	2.5%
38	Australia	79.9	8.1%
39	Kuwait	79.0	13.5%
40	Egypt	75.6	8.7%
41	Indonesia	73.1	3.6%
42	Kazakhstan	67.3	10.0%
43	Denmark	66.5	3.3%
44	Argentina	54.7	4.5%
45	Finland	49.1	20.6%
46	Bulgaria	39.9	9.9%
47	WAEMU	36.5	12.2%
48	Malaysia	36.4	1.5%
49	Peru	34.7	3.6%
50	Belarus	32	24.5%
51	Brazil	33.6	0.5%
52	Slovakia	31.8	65.4%
53	Bolivia	28.3	13.4%
54	Ukraine	27.2	3.5%
55	Ecuador	26.3	31.0%
56	Syria	25.8	-
57	Morocco	22.0	4.2%
58	Nigeria	21.4	-
59	Sri Lanka	17.5	11.9%
60	South Korea	14.4	0.2%
61	Cyprus	13.9	50.8%
62	Bangladesh	13.5	5.2%
63	Serbia	13.1	4.2%
63	Netherlands Antilles	13.1	36.3%
64	Jordan	12.8	4.3%
65	Czech Republic	12.7	1.2%
66	Cambodia	12.4	14.4%
68	Laos	8.8	36.5%
69	Latvia	7.7	4.0%
70	El Salvador	7.3	10.6%
71	CEMAC	7.1	2.3%
72	Guatemala	6.9	5.3%
73	Colombia	6.9	1.1%
74	Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia	6.8	12.7%
75	Tunisia	6.8	-
76	Ireland	6.0	11.8%
77	Lithuania	5.8	3.8%
78	Bahrain	4.7	-
79	Mauritius	3.9	6.8%
80	Canada	3.4	0.2%
81	Tajikistan	3.3	-
82	Slovenia	3.2	13.4%
83	Aruba	3.1	17.7%
84	Hungary	3.1	0.3%
85	Kyrgyzstan	2.6	6.5%
86	Luxembourg	2.2	11.7%
87	Hong Kong	2.1	0.0%
88	Suriname	2.0	11.4%
89	Iceland	2.0	1.6%
90	Papua New Guinea	2.0	2.9%
91	Trinidad and Tobago	1.9	0.8%
92	Albania	1.6	2.8%
93	Yemen	1.6	1.1%
94	Cameroon	0.9	1.2%
95	Mongolia	0.9	2.4%
96	Honduras	0.7	-
97	Paraguay	0.7	0.7%
98	Dominican Republic	0.6	1.0%
99	Gabon	0.4	0.8%
100	Malawi	0.4	6.2%
101	Central African Republic	0.3	8.4%
102	Chad	0.3	2.4%
103	Republic of the Congo	0.3	0.4%
104	Uruguay	0.3	0.1%
105	Fiji	0.2	-
106	Estonia	0.2	0.3%
107	Chile	0.2	0.0%
108	Malta	0.2	1.6%
109	Costa Rica	0.1	0.1%
110	Haiti	0.0	0.1%
111	Burundi	0.0	0.5%
112	Oman	0.0	0.0%
113	Comoros	0.0	-
114	Kenya	0.0	0.0%
-	World	30,562.5	-

Privately held gold

As of October 2009, gold exchange-traded funds held 1,750 tonnes of gold for private and institutional investors.^[13]

Gold Holdings Corp. a publicly listed gold company estimates that the amount of in-ground verified gold resources currently controlled by publicly traded gold mining companies is roughly 50,000 tonnes.^[14]

Privately held gold (May 2011)^[15]

Rank	Name	Type	Gold (Tonnes)
1	SPDR Gold Shares	ETF	1,239
2	ETF Securities Gold Funds	ETF	259.79
3	ZKB Physical Gold	ETF	195.53
4	COMEX Gold Trust	ETF	137.61
5	Julius Baer Physical Gold Fund	ETF	93.50
6	Central Fund of Canada	CEF	52.71[16]
7	NewGold ETF	ETF	47.75
8	Sprott Physical Gold Trust	CEF	32.27
9	ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares	ETF	27.97
10	Bullionvault	Bailment	37.1[17]
11	Central Gold Trust	CEF	18.81[18]
12	GoldMoney	Bailment	19.01[19]

World gold holdings

World gold holdings (2008) (Source: World Gold Council^[20])

Holding	Percentage
Jewelry	52%
Central banks	18%
Investment (bars, coins)	16%
Industrial	12%
Unaccounted	2%

See also

• Foreign exchange reserves
• Sovereign wealth fund
• United States Bullion Depository
• Federal Reserve Bank of New York
• Gold as an investment
• Peak Gold
• Strategic Petroleum Reserve
• Silver reserve
• Moscow gold, the reserves of the Bank of Spain sent to the Soviet Union during the Spanish Civil War.

Notes

1. ^ One tonne is 32,150.722 Troy Ounces.

References

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